How is it that artists and craftsmen can most profoundly affect culture? They master their chosen medium, and then they push themselves past its established wisdom to something new and immediate. They express the stuff of life in audacious ways that stir the imagination, provoking reaction and emotion. Miles Davis broke open new jazz vistas by relentlessly experimenting with other modern musical styles. Allen Ginsberg wrote “Howl” in a dialect borne from the soul-wrenching insufficiencies of traditional poetic syntax. Zaha Hadid defied staid architecture critics to design buildings around the globe that hurtled forward our ideas about structural fluidity and geometry.
Barber is no less a revolutionary, confronting big-minded creative challenges from the perspective of a cook, a writer, and a scholar, at a time in history when food and its relationship to — well, to everything, has become an indelible part of our culture.
Bill Addison, review of Blue Hill at Stone Barns restaurant
Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and the author of The Third Plate (May 2014, The Penguin Press). His opinions on food and agricultural policy have appeared in the New York Times, along with many other publications.
Appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, Dan continues the work that he began as a member of Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture’s board of directors: to blur the line between the dining experience and the educational, bringing the principles of good farming directly to the table.
Barber has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef: New York City (2006) and the country’s Outstanding Chef (2009). In 2009 he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
For family proprietors Dan, David and Laureen Barber, Blue Hill is the name both for their two restaurants, and for the farm that inspired them.
“I used to walk up Blue Hill Road every week, for years; sometimes everyday. I loved Blue Hill Farm more than anything in the world.
“Back then it was a dairy run by two brothers. What a mess! They had cows pasturing in the front yard, for god’s sake… And the barn and house were run-down and so dirty I couldn’t believe it. And you know what? I loved it. I loved the open pastures, I loved the backdrop of blue hills, I loved that I felt like a queen every time I came up here.
“But whenever I told the brothers I wanted to buy the farm, they just laughed. ‘Lady,’ they’d say, ‘This farm has been in our family for three generations. We’re never selling.’
“I’d return the next week, and they’d say the same thing. ‘Never selling.’ This went on for years.
“Then one day I arrived at the top of the hill and one of the brothers came running over to me. ‘Ma’am, do you still want to buy this farm?’ I couldn’t believe it. He didn’t even let me answer. ‘My brother and I have gotten into the biggest fight. If we don’t sell it now we’re going to kill each other.’ I told them I was interested. ‘Ma’am,’ he said, ‘we’re selling it now, or forget it. Right now.’
“So I said yes. I hadn’t even been inside the farmhouse, and I didn’t know where the property began and where it ended. But it didn’t matter. I just knew this was the place.”
~Ann Marlowe Straus, as told to her grandchildren David and Dan Barber
In spring of 2004, Blue Hill at Stone Barns opened within the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. The Barbers helped create the philosophical and practical framework for Stone Barns Center, a working four-season farm and educational center just 30 miles north of New York City, and continue to help guide it in its mission to create a consciousness about the effect of everyday food choices.
Sourcing from the surrounding fields and pasture, as well as other local farms, Blue Hill at Stone Barns highlights the abundance of the Hudson Valley. There are no menus at Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Instead, guests are offered a multi-taste feast featuring the best offerings from the field and market.
Review:
The Prophet of the Soil
Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns is the best restaurant in America by Bill Addison (5.12.2016)
The Third Plate
Reviews:
New York Times – A Chef in Search of a New Food Chain (29.05.2014)
The Guardian – Dan Barber’s long-term mission: to change food and farming for ever (15.01.2017)
Videos:
Articles:
Dan Barber Steps Away from Blue Hill at Stone Barns, with Pivot to Chefs in Residence Program (18.08.2020)
Dan Barber Announces Major Shake Up at Michelin-Starred Stone Barns (17.08.2020)
Local food systems are broken and Dan Barber is trying to fix them – here is what you can do to help (28.05.2020)
Nearly a third of small, independent farmers are facing bankruptcy by the end of 2020, new survey says (18.05.2020)
One of the World’s Top Chefs Has a Plan to Save Farm-to-Table Dining (11.05.2020)
5 Totally New Ingredients That Wouldn’t Even Exist Without Dan Barber (3.10.2016)
